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La Trobe Financial has been crowned as Australia’s Best Specialist Lender at the International Finance Awards.

Held in London on Thursday (10 November), this round of awards was the first time recognition had been offered to the Asia-Pacific region, said Sean Thomas, senior manager at International Finance Magazine (IFM).

The awards were handed out based not only on performance excellence but by closely examining each finalist’s rate of innovation, he said.

“This is what specialists are meant to be doing. In this regard La Trobe Financial’s P2C® and Aged Care product innovations were a stand out.”

The judges also considered corporate social responsibility (CSR), governance and other aspects which could impact global finance. As a result, La Trobe’s presence since 2008 in the Shanghai China Free Trade Zone (SFTZ) was viewed favourably by the judges.

Cory Bannister, chief lending officer, said he was pleased La Trobe had been recognised in these awards.

“We have been assisting those under-served by the traditional banking sector for over 60 years, with both loans and investment solutions,” he said.

“This is our mission to help others realise their dreams for home-ownership, to start-up their own business, or help their children enter the property market with our innovative P2C® loan product, and our innovative Aged Care loan for the later years in life. We have one of Australia’s broadest product suites in the market.”

Bannister said La Trobe had built up solid processes by focusing on delivering three promises to its brokers:

Using an experienced team of sales staff and credit analysts who understand the broking business and can help brokers make the right decisions

“We are here to deliver solutions in under-served markets, and we have the best team to do that. We originate over $300 million per month in loan applications, and this international recognition demonstrates clearly we are delivering,” said La Trobe’s head of communications & PR, Caterina Nesci.